


you hold your truth so purely

by fensandmarshes



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BFFs, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Lesbian Karen Page, let them be happy and friendship please
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:22:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22413940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fensandmarshes/pseuds/fensandmarshes
Summary: “I’m glad we broke up,” Karen says abruptly, cutting herself off.Matt huffs a laugh. “Wow, thanks.”"No! Not like that,” she says, speaking through a grin, whacking him playfully on his arm. “You know what I mean.”or: matt and karen meet up post breakup. they pinkie-promise to be bffs.or-or: matt murdock and karen page being glad they broke up for ~1300 words extremely straight (the straightness is comp-het)
Relationships: Matt Murdock & Karen Page, Matt Murdock/Franklin "Foggy" Nelson (if you squint), Matt Murdock/Karen page (past)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 33
Collections: Marvel Fluff Bingo





	you hold your truth so purely

**Author's Note:**

> this fills the square **post breakup au** for my [Marvel Fluff Bingo](marvelfluffbingo.tumblr.com) card!! i hope you enjoy it
> 
> (title from "whispers in the dark" by mumford and sons)

Matt’s stumbling through an awkwardly amiable conversation with Karen in Josie’s bar. They haven’t spoken much one-on-one since The Breakup (Matt gives it capital letters, but really it was more of a growing apart that culminated in an anticlimactic “this isn’t working”, nothing more than a natural progression). She invited him, and he figured Foggy would be here (a convenient buffer for the both of them. He’d probably even sit between them to make the symbolism more overt) but it turns out it’s just the two of them. Matt’s already more than a little …  _ buzzed _ , and Karen’s teasing him gently about being a lightweight. The world’s more than a little shaky. Matt’s glad he’s sitting down.

“I’m glad we broke up,” Karen says abruptly, cutting herself off.

Matt huffs a laugh. “Wow, thanks.”

“No! Not like that,” she says, speaking through a grin, whacking him playfully on his arm. “You know what I mean.”

“Do I?” Matt hedges, treading the line between serious and playfully antagonistic. He’s trying for a teasing tone, but somehow his voice wavers into a less collected measure. “Mind enlightening me, Ms. Page?”

She exhales a shaky breath, shifting. “I dunno, just …” She gestures expansively with her arm, before her heartbeat jumps and she hastily verbalises her action. Matt offers her a small smile in return. “Just … things didn’t work, you know?”

“I’m not  _ that  _ bad a date,” Matt pouts. 

“No, no, you’re … you’re fine,” Karen affirms hastily, stumbling over her own words as she raises her hand to her head, probably to tuck her hair behind her ear - Matt’s noticed she does that when she’s flustered. “It’s not. It wasn’t about … hm.”

“Well that’s reassuring,” Matt says, and flashes her another grin. His chest feels tight, but he can’t pinpoint why. Maybe he took a hard blow last night as Daredevil and can’t remember it - his memory tends to be fuzzier on long nights, possibly from the way he has to use his senses in fights but also possibly due to taking one too many knocks on the head. He tries to focus on the here and now. “Look, it’s not a big deal, Karen. You don’t have to explain -”

“No, I.” Karen swallows audibly, and Matt can tell she’s sweating, can smell it from across the room. Salt against her skin. “I want to.”

Matt waits. Her breath catches in her throat. He reminds himself to be patient, focuses on disciplining himself into silence, and takes another drink from his glass. She’ll speak when she’s ready.

“I, uh, I really thought I liked you,” Karen says after a time, tilting forwards in her seat to lean against the bar counter. “But that was ‘cause I had to?”

Matt frowns. Doesn’t say the ‘what’ forming in the back of his throat. 

Karen tosses her head, the movement of her hair against hair all at once deafening (it’s harder to filter when he’s a little drunk - not unbearable, not when he’s just a little buzzed, but he flinches regardless) as it sends a wave of shampoo-and-oil-and-sweat-and-Karen in his direction. It slams into his olfactory receptors - feels like a steam train. “I figured,” Karen says, misty through the haze of scent and chatter, “if I was gonna like a guy it’d be you, right?”

Matt rubs his forehead, persevering valiantly in search of a clear head. “Uh, sure. Sorry. What?”

“You’re not even paying attention,” Karen scoffs; there’s a little uptick in her heart-rate, and she sounds pissed at first but then something hits her like a jolt and Matt listens, senses, as her body changes tacks in an instant. She’s worried now. “Matt, are you okay?”

“Sure. A bit wobbly.”

“What?”

“You know.” It takes him a minute to realise that she doesn’t, in fact, know. “I’m fine, Karen, just dizzy. What were you saying?”

She barks a breathy laugh. “I was trying to come out to you, but maybe I’ll save it for another time if you’re too buzzed to think straight, okay?”

“Uh-huh,” Matt agrees amiably. “Sure. What?”

“Jesus, Matt.” Karen lifts her head from where it’s resting on her hands, rises from her seat. “Let’s just go.”

“But we were talking,” Matt frowns, affecting his best sad puppydog look. Foggy’s said no girl can resist that, right? Foggy also said ‘I’m kinda a sucker for it too, Murdock, so quit it before I do something stupid like kiss you’, though, so maybe he was just joking. (Foggy’s always joking when he says stuff like that.) “I like talking to you, Karen. You’re, uh. It’s nice.”

“That’s very sweet, Matt,” Karen says, more than a little amused judging by her tone of voice. “You’re nice too.”

“What were you gonna say?” Matt presses, grasping for Karen’s arm and missing. “Am I a bad date?”

“No, Matt,” Karen repeats, slightly exasperated. “I’m just very gay and comp-het made me think I was in love with you because you represented the ideals of a het relationship that I’ve been conditioned into wanting.”

Matt appreciates the lilt of her voice, but it’s a little too … words-on-words-on-words, the way they tumble. “Huh?”

“I’m gay, Matt.”

Matt snorts. “No, you’re Karen.”

Karen wheezes; Matt thinks she’s doubling over, can’t be sure. “You dumb bitch,” she chuckles. Ew, profanity. “That was a dad joke. Oh my God.”

“Taking the Lord’s name in vain,” Matt tells her very seriously, “is a sin.”

“Mm-hmm,” Karen agrees placidly. “I should probably wait to explain this until you’re sober, huh.”

“I am sober,” Matt defends (ha, like the Defenders! Defense attorney! Matt’s the best at defending stuff). “You’re just … shaky.”

“Shaky,” Karen deadpans.

“The shakiest,” Matt agrees. He can still sense her outline but it’s … wavering, wobbly. Not a super difficult concept. Maybe he needs to explain it differently?

Karen clears her throat as she sits back down, messing with her hair again. “No, okay, here’s what I mean when I say I’m glad we’re not, uh … together. We’re bros, right, Matt?”

He laughs. “Okay. Broworkers.”

“I saw that episode of One Day at a Time too, Matt,” Karen tells him - harshly and cruelly and  _ meanly _ . How dare she  _ crush his dreams  _ like this - “but I’m sure you think you’re very clever.”

“I am very clever,” Matt repeats earnestly. “I went to, uh. Law school. Gotta be clever.”

“Ugh,” Karen says fondly, slinging an arm around his shoulders. “I give up.” 

“Karen?” Matt mumbles into the phone the next morning, all too awake and regretting his life decisions immensely.

She chuckles, staticky through the receiver. “You as hungover as you sound, Matt?”

“Perhaps,” Matt says, doing his best to maintain his dignity. “Listen, uh, I’m glad we broke up too.”

There’s an intake of breath. “You remember that, huh?”

“Kinda,” Matt admits, and groans. Fucking. Headache. “Wish I didn’t.”

“‘Cause of the gay thing?” Karen says guardedly.

“What? No.” Matt winces. “Just, uh, I was very … slightly buzzed.”

Karen’s laugh is clear and bell-like. “You keep telling yourself that.”

“It’s, uh … I think we’re better off being friends,” Matt repeats, stilted, as if he’s still in the process of doing the breaking up rather than it being done and dusted months ago. “We’re good like that. You know?”

“Yeah, Matt, I know.” Matt can hear Karen’s smile filtering into her tone, and it makes him grin a little back. Her voice is a little hoarse when she speaks again. “We’re BFFs, don’t worry. I’ll pinkie-promise to that if you want to be sure.”

“I don’t think pinkie-promises are legally binding,” Matt says, just to be a little shit. “But I might hold you to that.”

“You do that,” she grumbles. “Now hang up and leave me to my headache.”

**Author's Note:**

> \- i love bi karen but i decided this would work better for this fic  
> \- i just love them a lot???? let them be friends pls @ canon  
> \- my tumblr is [hoarding-citrine](hoarding-citrine.tumblr.com) if you want to say hello <3 (unless you are my mother, in which i humbly request that you do not)  
> \- please let me know what you think if you have the time!! it makes my day


End file.
